Study: Potential health risk in an unlikely place; Could this affect you?

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Health checks

Study: Potential health risk in an unlikely place; Could this affect you?

Health checks

There may be a new health worry.

But it’s not coming from a place you might expect, your neighbor’s house.

If a house near yours does into foreclosure, it may bring so much anxiety that your health is negatively impacted.

That’s according to new research published in American Heart Association Journal called “Circulation.”

The study looked at more than 1,700 residents living in Massachusetts between 1987 and 2008.

Researchers found the stress that came with just living by a nearby foreclosed home that was so great that it increased the person’s chances of developing high blood pressure.

They found that the longer amount of time before that foreclosed home is on the market, the greater the anxiety for the neighbors.

The researchers said the increase in blood pressure was’t large enough to pose a big health risk – but certainly interesting to see how someone else’s financial trouble in your neighborhood can have an effect on you.